Peter Dawncy

May 5, 2012 / mascara / 0 Comments

Peter Dawncy lives in the Dandenong Ranges east of Melbourne. He has an Arts Degree with majors in English and Philosophy from Monash University and is currently completing Honours in poetry writing. For his thesis, Peter is undertaking a study of Philip Hammial’s poetry through Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari. He hopes to begin his PhD next year. Peter has had poetry and fiction published in various Australian journals and magazines, and in 2010 he was the winner of the Monash Poetry Prize and came second in the Monash fiction-writing competition. His play, The Logue of Thomas P. T. Lawrence, was performed at the Arts Centre in June 2010.

logue

satellites coalesce / fold

the corners to the

belt above

triangles as

squid jigs

at the jetty’s end

in fluorescence by

the dried

white-bait clumps

snapper catch

gloves welcome

container ships with

coordinates

for salt meets sky

Melbourne woven in it

Eureka deep green

iceberg siege

seen from afar

by the

research vessel en route

to the Antarctic snowfields

saturnine

darkness

over floodwater

extends

smooth, wet pavement

over stars

murmur

as monkeys march

to flightless geese

flapping.

pour further

wide and windless

a fleece

bobs by

saturnine

fishermen

hauling in mulloway—

take

a picture

and somewhere

a frame discards

its portrait

and searches for a

foreign landscape.

for now, moonlight

skewers a dog’s nose,

bogong moths whirl,

a shadow

opens the door, sneezes,

closes the door—

tap shoes

seem too polished

for a winter worn

underwater.

autumn storm

spiralling tongues
twirl, slash the billowing
gun-powder grit
beneath the blue gum and
above the clamouring
bracken. milk thistles levelled
as dogwoods sneeze, black-
birds dive for the pine copse
and ferns puff dust
from their beards as
they lean and squint. a black-
wood teeters and quakes,
topples as its feet rent
the earth
like a child shredding
wrapping paper. somewhere
in the composting depths
a little girl in a green
and white dress
gets her hair caught
and screams for her mother.